WILL FRANCE MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO DENY TURKEY’S ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?
San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Oct 18 2006
History, some historians point out, is written by the victors. Are
there times, though, when history is written by legislators?
Last Thursday, deputies in the lower house of France’s National
Assembly approved a bill that would make it a crime to deny that
mass killings by the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey’s predecessor)
of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 constituted what can be called
genocide; Armenians claim the mass killings and deportations of
ethnic Armenians during that period, which Turkey has long refuted,
was genocide that led to more than 1.5 million deaths.(Le Monde)
Bulent Kilic/AFP
Protesters in Istanbul last weekend expressed their anger at the news
of the proposed French law If the French Senate approves the proposal,
and it becomes a national law, then anyone in France who denies "the
Armenian genocide" could be punished with a year in prison and up to
45,000 euros ($56,000) in fines. In 2001, France’s National Assembly
already officially recognized the Ottoman Turks’ massacres of the
Armenians nearly a century ago as genocide.
France’s action has sparked furor across the political spectrum in
Turkey. French President Jacques Chirac called Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan to say he regretted it. (Still, just a little
more than two weeks ago, in Armenia, Chirac publicly stated that it
would be an "inspired" gesture for Turkey to finally recognize the
Ottoman Turks’ genocide against the Armenians – that is, if Turkey
has any hope of ever joining the European Union.) (Le Monde)
Erdogan later said: "Chirac called me to say he was disappointed…."
The Turkish leader called the proposed French law a "great shame and
a black stain for freedom of expression." Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul warned that the bill that is moving through France’s
legislature could "deeply damage French-Turkish relations."
Hurriyet
Bulent Arinc, the speaker of Turkey’s parliament Turkey’s Hurriyet
reports that Bulent Arinc, the speaker of the Turkish parliament, "said
that he does not think…Chirac’s apologetic phone call to…Erdogan in
the wake of the French parliament’s acceptance of the ‘genocide-denial’
bill was ‘genuine.’"
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country currently
holds the E.U.’s rotating presidency, called the French deputies’
action "stupid." Qualifying his remark, he stated: "My calling this
French decision ‘stupid,’ and my hope that the bill is immediately
withdrawn ha[ve] nothing to do with [what] actually happened to the
Armenians in Turkey. Personally, I do think that ‘genocide’ is the
correct term to describe what happened to Armenians in the past,
and I wish that Turkey would be ready to accept this." (Hurriyet)
Fatih Saribas/Reuters
The protest in Istanbul brought out supporters of parties across the
political spectrum, all furious about France’s action Commentator Ayse
Ozgun, in the Turkish Daily News, writes: "[T]he Armenian subjects of
the Ottoman Empire were first coaxed by the Russians…to rise up and
fight [their rulers]…allowing them to build their own country….In
the end, however, the Ottomans won, and Armenian independence was
never realized….I can imagine how such a loss could plant extreme
anger in the French towards the Ottomans and, later, the Turks….But
then I ask the French…: How come you did not support the Armenians
with French troops?…The test of time for friendship is not when
the days are sunny and balmy but when they are bloody and tragic."
An editorial in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune (the
New York Times’ sister publication) states: "We have argued many
times that Turkey must come to grips with the crimes of its past
and stop prosecuting writers who mention the Armenian genocide of
the early 20th century. But we found it as absurd and as cynical
when the French National Assembly voted overwhelmingly last week to
make it illegal…to deny that there was an Armenian genocide." The
IHT advises: "France’s Senate still has a chance to throw out this
outrageous bill, and we hope it does. We hope, too, that the Turks do
not retaliate with something similarly nutty, like making it a crime
to deny French colonial atrocities in Algeria….[T]he sooner Turks
confront their past, the better. They are beginning to, in large part
because of the lure of membership in the European Union. That does not
excuse the way French politicians are trying to exploit anti-Turkish
feelings while playing up to the large Armenian-French constituency."